Ex-lawmaker Scott Bundgaard files $10M claim against Phoenix

PHOENIX - A former state senator who resigned in January over a domestic
violence incident involving his ex-girlfriend filed a $10 million notice of
claim Friday against Phoenix police and city officials.

Scott Bundgaard, 44, stepped down before he had to testify to a Senate Ethics
Committee deciding whether he should be disciplined over the February 2011
incident.

Police said Bundgaard wasn't arrested because he claimed legislative immunity,
which bars arrests of lawmakers for most charges while the Legislature is in
session.

In the 29-page claim, a lawyer for Bundgaard said the Peoria Republican didn't
invoke legislative immunity.

Bundgaard's claim also accuses the Police Department of altering reports;
improperly and intentionally reporting he ``was the perpetrator, rather than the
victim, of domestic violence''; and improperly providing information for use in
the Senate Ethics Committee proceedings.

The claim, which is the precursor to a lawsuit, alleges that Bundgaard was
defamed and had his civil rights violated, and that police were negligent in
their actions.

City officials said Friday that they received copies of the claim and they
declined to comment until they could review it.

Bundgaard's claim seeks money for direct and consequential damages, special
damages, punitive damages and attorneys' fees. It states that since the Senate
hearings, ``he has lost his Senate seat, his salary and benefits including
health insurance, and his political career.''

His resignation on Jan. 6 ended an ethics case that could have resulted in a
recommendation that the full Senate issue a letter of reprimand, formally
censure Bundgaard or expel him.

Bundgaard's ex-girlfriend, Aubry Ballard, testified that he struck her twice,
threw her cellphone out a window while they drove, then stopped on a Phoenix
freeway and pulled her out of his car.

Ballard said she reacted to being hit in the chest by slapping Bundgaard in the
face. Both people had cuts and bruises after the confrontation, she said.

Ballard testified that the confrontation followed an argument over Bundgaard's
decision to take dancing lessons while failing to take time to get counseling
for a previous physical altercation.

The claim filed Friday disputed Ballard's version of events, saying she was
intoxicated and making confrontational statements.

Phoenix police officers testified that Bundgaard reeked of alcohol, demanded to
be released from handcuffs after they detained him, and refused field sobriety
tests. A sergeant testified that he denied drinking- a statement the sergeant
said he didn't believe.

Bundgaard would have been arrested on possible domestic violence allegations
and suspicion of DUI if not for the immunity law, the sergeant and an officer
testified.

Bundgaard denied assaulting Ballard. He later pleaded no contest to a
misdemeanor endangerment charge under a plea agreement. It included dismissal of
an assault charge and a requirement that he get domestic violence counseling.

Bundgaard was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1994 and the
state Senate in 1996, serving there for six years before staging an unsuccessful
run for the U.S. House in 2002. He returned to the state Senate in 2011.